Rise of the Animus
by Caroline L'Amoure
Summary: The Mirror re-write! Althea is a normal woman with a strange past- she keeps dreaming about some strange prince of a faraway kingdom. After seeing the hardships he's suffered, she finally meets him and agrees to help him on his quest to regain his kingdom. In order to have his revenge against those who killed his family, Toran must find other Animus willing to take up weapons.
1. Chapter 1

Althea looked out the window of the castle, watching the birds flying in the distance hills around her family's lands. She had been having strange dreams lately, dreams that kept her awake at night and left her drowsy the next day. She was starting to worry about them, because they were beginning to get darker and more violent each night. Still, she dare not talk to anyone about it, because if they knew she was dreaming of Animus, she would be ridiculed… or worse.

The Animus were a people that humans had created- as an experiment by the great sorcerers of the past to best each other in magic. Ever more exotic creatures were turned into sentient beings, human like with animal features. These beings became numerous as the generations passed, sorcerers even going so far as to put their own magic into a few races of the Animus… to disastrous results.

The Animus decided they no longer wanted to be a plaything of humans- they wanted their own lands, their own kingdoms. So the great war was started- a war which divided the lands of the world into the four kingdoms- Taria, the tiger kingdom, Kisa the Avian kingdom, Varso the wolf kingdom and finally the Parln kingdom of humans. The Animus had been so ruthless in their uprising, many had died in the battles that ensued. It had inspired an intense hatred among humans for the 'animals' they had created- and now should destroy.

Althea let out a deep sigh and leaned against the stone wall, watching the birds dive toward each other playfully before flying back toward their nests. The dreams she had been having since she was a small girl were confusing and scary, considering the animosity toward those in it. She dreamed of a young tiger Animus, learning to fight with a sword, being taught the ways of the world. He had been taught to hate humans, because humans had sought to once control them and so shouldn't be trusted.

What Althea couldn't understand is why that prejudice had to continue, even though the war was long over… or so she had thought. The dream she had the last few nights had terrified her, waking her yelling in fear as assassins crept into the tiger's castle and killed his parents. He had run with the help of a palace guard, fire erupting in great explosions around them as they ran through the huts that lined the streets of the kingdom. They had barely escaped, the guard badly burned in the mad dash through flames.

What was happening? Were these dreams real? She had little magic of her own- a fact that shamed her parents. The stronger the magic you have, the more powerful you are among humans. It was survival of the strongest, and because she was so weak, she was usually kept locked away in her stupid castle. She yearned to escape the walls that surrounded her and explore, to see the distant jungles and forests she saw in her dreams. Perhaps they were real… though she didn't know why she would have such a strong connection with someone so far away and so different from her.

She bit her lip nervously, not knowing what to do other than try to live her life as normally as possible. She yawned sleepily as she walked back to her room, deciding to try and get some sleep after her restless night.

 _Toran followed the palace guard through the countryside, looking up at the taller Animus who still remained in his armor._

" _Do you know where we're going?" Toran asked, not daring to look back over her shoulder at the smoke behind him. Who had done this? Was it humans that had destroyed his family and his home?_

" _It's not too much further." The guard said, panting for breath. He reached up and took his helmet off, revealing a panther's dark fur and bright yellow eyes. "We're going to a library that's very far from any cities. They won't look for you there."_

 _Toran nodded, not questioning the man's wisdom. He didn't have any other idea of where to go.  
_ " _Oh no." The panther gasped as smoke rose in the distance ahead of him. They had been walking for days toward the kingdom of the Avians, Kisa. Perhaps the Avians could help him with their great armies of flying warriors.  
_ " _What, what is it?" Toran looked at the man as the panther's eyes widened in fear._

" _Kisa- it's… burning." The guard broke out into a run into the forest, Toran following close behind him. Claws dug through fallen leaves, jumping over trees and around stumps toward the smoke in the distance, the screams sounding from all around them as feathers few and people ran._

" _What's happening?" The guard yelled at a raven Animus as he scrambled past him, his wing broken behind him so he couldn't fly.  
_ " _Turn around, it's not safe here!" The raven yelled to him. "The humans have come, they've come to destroy us! The peacocks are dead, all of them, dead!" He shouted hysterically before running past them._

" _Dead?" the guard ran closer toward the burning in the distance, only to see an army of humans using fire magic to torch the castle of the Avians. Screams were sounding from the stone walls as those who could struggled to fly from the windows into all directions, only to be shot down by bolts of flame from the human soldiers. A burst of golden magic flew the door of the castle open, the king of the Avians shouting angrily, his peacock tail unfurled but burned behind him. With practiced hands he let loose fire blasts of his own toward the human soldiers, blocking those that came toward him until one missed his block, singing his shoulder. The flinch he made from the pain would be his undoing, the split second pause in his attack letting the humans go in for the kill, fire consuming him as he yelled in anger and pain._

" _We have to go, now!" The guard took Toran's wrist and dragged him back out of the forest, running as fast as they could away from the humans. Once they were out of the trees and a good distance away, Toran collapsed to his knees in exhaustion, the guard falling beside him.  
_ " _Where do we go now?" Toran looked up at the guard in panic._

" _We just have to go around the forest." The guard panted, wiping sweat from his brow. "If we avoid the humans, we should be fine."  
Toran nodded, catching his breath and shaking his head. "Why are they doing this?" He growled angrily. "First Taria, and now Kisa? What did we ever do to them?"_

 _The guard chuckled sourly. "It's not what we did, but what our fathers did." The panther stood up, holding out a hand to help Toran up. "You're young still, so you probably don't understand that yet."_

 _Toran glared at the man. "I'm 17, I'm not that young."_

" _Young enough." The guard chuckled. "My name's Xicro." The panther held out an armored hand to shake. "Nice to meet you, prince."_

 _Toran nodded and shook the man's hand gratefully. "I owe you my life, Xicro."_

" _Just doing my duty." Xicro shrugged, but groaned in pain when the movement moved his armor over the burn on his shoulder.  
_ " _Let's get going so you can get that tended to." Toran started walking, before looking behind him over his shoulder. "And Xicro, do me a favor? Don't call me prince."_

 _Xicro chuckled and jogged to catch up with him. "What would you rather I call you? Oh striped one?"_

 _Toran grinned before knocking the man playfully in the good arm. "We're equals from now on, alright Xicro? You saved my life. I don't have anyone else now, so…" His ears flipped back sadly._

" _Alright, Toran." Xicro put an arm around the tiger comfortingly. "Just remember, you're a tiger. You're the prince, and probably the last of the Taria kingdom royal family. We're going to fix this. We'll find a way to get your kingdom back."  
Toran nodded, looking ahead in determination, his green eyes blazing with anger. "Yes, we will."_

Althea woke up with a start, her hands clutching the blankets as she woke from another terrible dream. No… these couldn't be real. Her uncle wouldn't do something so terrible, would he? He wouldn't order an entire kingdom to be destroyed…  
Althea decided to put it out of her mind. There was no way to even prove that had been real. She would have heard about it if it had been, right? It would be the beginning of war again, this time started by the humans. Why had everyone been so quiet about such an important event? She dressed quickly, opening her door to see her handmaiden about to open it.  
"Oh, m'lady!" She curtsied. "Your father has called for you. You're go travel south to stay with your cousins."

"How long?" Althea gasped. No one had told her about this before!  
"I'm not sure, m'lady." She handmaiden shook her head. "I was only told to help you pack your belongings for the journey.

Althea nodded as she helped the servants pack her belongings, hating to watch them do it for her. If she was staying with her cousins, then something must be happening. She packed her last bag and traveled down the stairs, her mind buzzing with questions.

6 years later…

"Althea, come back! You're going too far!" Her cousin shouted behind her, the horse beneath her breathing heavily at the full run she had let it into. She loved the feel of the wind rushing through her red hair, the steed beneath her flexing with each powerful stride. It was a heady feeling to travel so fast, and she loved it more any anything else.

"Althea!" The faint shout of her cousin came from behind her, but Althea couldn't care. Her cousin was spoiled and dainty, hating to run on the horse for fear her skirts would wrinkle. They were the same age, but so very different in personality. Sure Althea was of marrying age being in her early 20's, but she didn't much care for the company of the stuffy proper men her aunt always paraded in front of her. She wanted someone who would be willing to travel- to go on adventures and live life to the fullest.

She stopped the horse at a river, looking over her shoulder to see her cousin nowhere in sight. She couldn't help but laugh at the thought of the spoiled girl shouting crazily around the country side as she looked for her. She leaned down and cupped her hands for a drink of her own, the cold water refreshing on a hot summer day.

"Well, what do we have here?" She heard a male voice behind her and turned around to see a large Animus staring down at her, grizzly brown hair covering his face as he glared at her. "You look like a well to do." He grinned, revealing rows of teeth. "I bet they'll pay handsomely to get you back."

"Get away from me." Althea backed up closer to the horse, which pranced nervously at the sight of such a large intimidating person. The man must be a large carnivore of some sort- judging on the ears, probably a bear.

"Now now, be nice and I won't hurt ye." He grabbed her wrist, hoisting her up into the air. She kicked her feet helplessly as she dangled from the height, the bear looking at her face to face. "Ye shouldn't have gone so far, miss." He grinned. "I know someone who will want to ask you a few questions, eh?" He let out a rumbling laugh as he hoisted her over his shoulder and started walking away. Althea yelled and beat at the man's shoulder, but to no avail. She watched as the horse whickered and ran away back toward her cousin's castle, wondering what would become of her.

* * *

"'ey, I found someone for ye." The bear's growling voice jolted her alert as she struggled to look over the man's massive body to see who he was talking to. They had entered some sort of tavern, though she had no idea where it was. They had traveled for hours away from the forest and hills she knew.

"Oh?" A smooth voice asked. "It looks like a woman. You fool, did you nab a noble?" A hiss sounded after the sentence. "They'll come looking for her!"

"I thought she would know what plans they had more than anyone else." The bear shrugged, jostling her on his shoulder. "Besides, she was way out in the middle of nowhere. No one around."

"Hmmm. Alright, set her down." The smooth voice said again.

Althea was set down on the ground and she angrily kicked the bear in the shin, ignoring the large carnivore's angry growl at her. "Idiot- you could have just grabbed me, not hoist me over your shoulder like an old sack of potatoes!" She yelled.

"My, a fiery one, isn't she?" The voice behind her chuckled. She turned around to snap at him, only to freeze at the sight of him.

Black fur, yellow eyes, the same lean thin build from her dreams, only older than before. She had been having them more sporadically now than when she had been younger, only seeing bits and pieces of the daily life of the tiger prince. It was Xicro- it had to be… but how?

"Cat got your tongue?" The panther grinned at her shocked expression. "What, am I more scary than Brutus, here?" the cat motioned to the bear that had kidnapped her.

"You- I know you!" Althea gasped in shock, her eyes widening. "It was all real? No, it couldn't be…" She looked at the ground as she tried to come to terms with the fact that everything she had seen had been real.

"Um… you know me?" Xicro blinked in surprise. "I've never seen you before in my life, so who are you?"

"I'm Althea." She answered quickly, not thinking. "I… well, it'll sound pretty crazy." She hesitated, looking over her shoulder at the bear still standing behind her.

Xicro hesitated for a moment before telling Brutus to wait outside. "Alright, no go on. I'm good at dealing with crazy things, trust me."

"I know." Althea sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I've been having dreams that had you in them since I was a little girl."

Xicro stared at her in surprise for a moment. "Okay, you beat me, that's about the strangest thing I've heard in a long time."

"I know it sounds crazy, but it's true!" Althea insisted.

"Alright then, prove it. You could have heard my name from any number of Animus." Xicro crossed his arms in front of his chest skeptically.

Althea sighed, her shoulder sagging. "Fine. Your name is Xicro, you were a palace guard when Taria fell. You saved the prince, Toran, from the fires of the castle and brought him to Kisa, only to see that in flames as well. Then you brought him to a library where your childhood friend Radica was a librarian, and you stayed there for a long time while she tended to the burn you got on your shoulder from the flames." She paused, smiling at his shocked expression. "Should I go on?"

"There's no way you should know all this." Xicro shooked his head.

"Alright, I'll continue. You raised Toran to be the best warrior possible after he vowed vengeance on the people who burned his kingdom and killed his family. You admitted to him that you really miss your friend Benett, though you can't tell Toran where he is because he's spying in the human kingdom."

"Ssshhh, alright, I believe you!" Xicro blushed, putting a hand over her mouth to make her stop talking. "How is this possible, though? I've never heard of something like this happening before."

"I don't know. I never told anyone because they would either think I'm crazy or some sort of Animus spy. Either way I'd get locked away somewhere." Althea shrugged.

Xicro ran a hand over his face in exasperation. "Alright, well… is there anything you can tell me that the humans are planning, since you already know everything else about us?"

Althea shook her head. "They sent me away when I was younger to live with my cousin down here at the border. There's no way for me to find out anything down here."

Xicro sighed in frustration. "So this was all a waste. Great."

"Is… is Toran real too?" Althea asked, a bit sheepishly. "I don't know why I have these dreams, but I'd really like to meet him if possible."

Xicro looked down at her curiously before a wry smile came over his face. " Yeah, he's here. Follow me." Xicro stood, leading Althea through the empty tavern toward the back. "He's usually practicing out back."

Althea gripped her skirt in her hand nervously as she walked into the back, seeing a figure in the disance spinning a blade around him skillfully.

"Yo Toran, there's someone who wants to meet you!" Xicro said before pushing her forward until she was in front of the fence that divided the porth from the courtyard.

"I told you not to bother me when I'm practicing this move Xicro, I could-" He froze at the sight of Althea, his sword dropping to the ground as Xicro let out a gleeful cackle of amusement beside her. "Wait- what?" Toran blinked at her. "No. No way."

"What?" Althea looked at herself, wondering if something was showing that shouldn't be. No, her skirts were in order. Why was he so shocked?

"What the hell?" Toran put his hands through his hair, gripping locks between his fingers. "How?"

"WHAT?" Althea yelled angrily, not liking his reaction.

"I know you!" Toran yelled, pointing at her. "You're Althea!"

Althea blinked in surprise as Xicro's cackles only got louder. "How do you know my name?"

"Holy shit! How the hell?" Toran started pacing back and forth. "I don't have magic, there's no way! I thought it was all some sort of strange dream!"

"So did I!" Althea yelled back. "Do you know how crazy I'd sound if I told anyone I dreamed about the tiger price every night?"

"Hey, I'm the one dreaming about some human girl who's trapped in some stupid castle. How many damn embroidery projects did I have to sit through? I swear I could probably do it myself at this point if I ever wanted to!"

"Yeah well, watching you swing that stupid thing for yours isn't exactly exciting either!" Althea walked around the fence to walk toward Toran. "All I hear all night was 'Hiya, Ya Ya!" She motioned sword swinging. "You never do anything else!"

"I do to." Toran frowned down at her when she came to a stop in front of him.

"Oh, like study battle tactics? Sooo exciting." Althea rolled her eyes. "Everything you ever do is about fighting! Why don't you go out and live a little!"

"You're one to talk!" Toran growled. "Knitting, embroidery, dainty little laces." He waggled his fingers mockingly. "The only time you ever did anything exciting was when you rode that horse!"

"I know! Look where that got me! Kidnapped by Animus!" Althea yelled before realizing how upset she had gotten, and caught her breath, continuing to glare at him. "Not everything is about revenge, Toran. It's not good for you to be so obsessed."

Toran scoffed at her. "Yeah well, if your family gets killed and your kingdom burned, then you can tell me all about it. Until then, don't lecture me on something you don't know about." He growled.

"I'm just trying to help you!" Althea yelled again, her anger getting the best of her.

"Then help me get my kingdom back!" Toran yelled back.

"Fine, I will!" She jabbed him in the chest with a finger. "But you owe me an apology if I get killed!" She turned around and stomped back into the tavern, muttering under her breath.

Toran stared after her with wide eyes, her words ringing through the air. She would help him? A human? He looked over at Xicro to see the panther clapping an applause as if he had seen a great performance.

"Bravo Toran, you pissed off the one human that sees you as an ally. Good job, mr. tactics." Xicro laughed before he walked back inside as well.

"Crazy woman." Toran growled as he picked up his sword from the ground, brushing it off before continuing his practice.


	2. Chapter 2

Althea sat inside the tavern, trying not to feel self conscious as the Animus walked in and out, staring at her in shock before Xicro signaled that she was fine to be there. They must really hate humans... though she couldn't really blame them with what had happened before. What she didn't know was why they were blaming her for something that had happened before she was even born.

"So, you must be the human Xicro was telling me about." a lynx Animus in a long silvery dress stood in front of her, a happy grin on her face. "I'll admit, I've never met a human before that wasn't trying to kill me. I'm Radica." She held out her hand to shake.

"My name is Althea." She smiled back up at the animus. "I'll do what I can to help you guys, though I don't know what good I'll be for your cause."

"You'd be surprised." Radica sat down on the stool next to her, crossing her legs politely, but letting the top leg bounce up and down as if it was hard for her to stay still. "There were many times when it would be useful for a human to help negotiate supplies or passage through an area. Maybe we can even get our little band through this part of the country easier with you around." She shrugged.

Althea smiled happily at the idea of being so useful. "I'll help wherever you guys need me. I've always felt a bond toward animus- and there's no reason for humans to have destroyed your kingdoms like we did."

Radica blinked in surprise but smiled gratefully. "It's not your fault, but it is nice to hear that, thank you. Many animus have been through a lot, some more than others."

"I imagine." Althea glanced out the door where Toran was still practicing his sword skills. She knew exactly what the tiger animus had gone through... had even felt the emotions he had felt. "Do you know what he's planning?"

"Who, Toran? I know he has a general idea of what he wants to do, but I'm not sure how much detail he has figured out yet." Radica shook her head. "He's very good on big ideas, just not on specifics. He wants to go to the wolf kingdom, Varso, to ask the pack for help against the humans." Radica paused for a moment, glancing over to Althea. "Fighting against humans won't be a problem for you, will it?"

"If they're trying to kill you, then no. Obviously I don't want to be part of a slaughter of my kind, but I figure if it's self defense then I'll understand."

Radica sighed with relief. "That's good, I hadn't thought about what it would be like to fight against your kind. Animus haven't fought since we established the kingdoms. Once we decided on a heirarchy, it was easy for things to fall into place. Some species are more dominant than others, though of course there is always infighting between factions."

Althea looked over to her in interest. "How so? I always wondered how your governing system works."

"Well obviously a single species is chosen to be royal- in our kingdom's case, the tigers. For the Avians it was the peacocks, and for the canines the wolves. Each species rules in their own particular way. The tigers are a hereditary rule family. The peacocks did collective voting among the flock before they were killed. The wolves rule by right of combat- the strongest wolf rules the pack, though there are a few exceptions for sons of alphas. They must be ready to accept challenges, though. If a wolf wins a challenge, he becomes the new king. However if he's a tyrant, then the pack turns against him and drives him out. They are actually quite ruthless now that I think about it." Radica tapped a finger on her chin thoughtfully. "You can be king one day, and chased off with your tail between your legs the next."

"They may be ruthless, but we'll need their help." Toran said from the doorway, wiping sweat from his brow with his shirt in his hand. Althea couldn't help but stare for a moment that his chest was white fur, surrounded by the orange and tiger stripes around his shoulders. She had never seen an animus in person before today, and it was interesting how the animal characteristics melded with the human ones.

"The wolf pack is massive- over a hundred strong. If we can appeal to their alpha and have him send soldiers to help us, we'll have a chance of gaining ground back in the Taria kingdom. Maybe after we establish ourselves again we can even start to help out the Kisa kingdom." Toran walked over to the stairs that led to rooms above, stopping at the bottom of the staircase. "With you with us, Althea, you can buy food at human markets so we don't have to live off the land around these parts. That will help us a lot, considering we have to cross the human peninsula in order to get to the wolves." Toran sighed. "I didn't think it would take this long already, so I'd really like to get going as quickly as possible."

"Well just let me know when you'd like me to get some things and I can get them. I just need the money for it and I can bring back what we need." She hadn't counted that many animus with them... just Toran, Xicro, Radica, Brutus and herself. Xicro had even mentioned that Brutus wasn't going to travel with them, but was instead staying behind. It wouldn't be that hard for four people to sneak through enemy territory, right?

Toran smiled at her offering. "Then I'll let you know tomorrow what we need. For now, we rest in preparation. This next leg of the journey is going to get rather close to some unsettling territory. I want to us to be alert for dangers as we're traveling." The tiger walked up the stairs to his room, leaving Althea alone with Radica.

"I'm a bit nervous about going through some of this territory to be honest." Radica confessed, her hands bunching her skirt uneasily. "I've heard they have... prisons in here. I know Toran and Xicro, and they'll want to free whoever is in those prisons... I just don't want to get caught in one myself."

"Well, I know a little magic." Althea smiled reassuringly. "I don't know many offensive spells, but I'll try and keep any guards or whatever away from you guys. Who knows, maybe we'll free some animus who will join us."

Radica smiled back and nodded. "Well, we'd best get some rest." Radica stood and walked over to the stairs. "I'll show you to your room. It's not much, but it's good sleeping for now." Radica walked up with Althea, opening the door to a simple room with a bed, chair and table. "Sleep tight, tomorrow will be a lot of walking." Radica teased before closing the door to the room behind her, leaving Althea alone with her thoughts.

Althea sat on the bed and looked out the small window of the room, seeing the sun setting against the hills of the countryside. Today she had gone from trapped in her cousin's castle facing a life of boredom and thankless marriage to a stranger to traveling with the animus on an adventure to help better lives. It still amazed her that her dreams had been real all those years, and even more shocking was the fact that Toran had shared the connection and had dreamed about her as well.

She sighed and laid down on the bed, which was slightly lumpy and hard, but otherwise quite pleasant. Rolling on her side she closed her eyes, wondering what would happen as they traveled through the 'enemy' territory.

"Alright!" Toran grinned happily at the bag of food Althea brought back from a market in a small village they had come across. It hadn't taken long before the animus had descended on her, giving her what little human money they had in order to get much needed supplies for the journey. The market had been small, filled mostly with fruit, vegetables, bread and the much requested dried meat the animus had hoped for. Each of them munched on a piece of it as they continued walking, and Althea couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.

"What?" Toran glanced over to her curiously at her chuckle.

"You're all carnivores, aren't you? You're so happy to have meat." She bit into her own piece as they continued onward. "I just think it's funny, since you're all cats that you'd love dried meat so much."

"We can eat fruits and vegetables, but nothing tastes better than meat to us." Xicro explained, already finishing off the last bite of his piece. "We prefer it more than anything. Other animus can only digest fruits or vegetables, though. Some are herbivores but most carnivores were changed to omnivores." 

"I'm surprised you guys haven't done this before, then." Althea glanced over to the tiger. "I mean yeah it's a human village, but I can't imagine all of them would hate animus. Some humans must be allies to you."

"Very few." Xicro added in, catching up to walk on the other side of her. "There are a couple that I know of, but they would never fight with us with other humans like you are."

Althea shrugged, not believing that it would be a big deal. Of course she would help those who are being killed just because they're different it was wrong... why was it so hard to imagine?

"Besides, there's always the risk of those who would tell the kingdom nobles about where we are." Toran looked down to her. "I can't take that risk. We stand out too much in a crowd- it would be asking for trouble if someone were to follow us back to where we were camped."

Althea couldn't help but glance around nervously, wondering if she had attracted the same attention. "You don't think anyone followed me, do you?" She whispered, as if someone was already listening.

"I doubt it. You are human, after all. There's much less reason to suspect you of being an enemy than one of us." Xicro chuckled. "So there's no need to be nervous. Besides even if someone does come along who wants to pick a fight, you know magic and Toran knows sword fighting. Radica and I can hold our own pretty well too, you know. I think we'd be able to fend them off."

Althea bit her lip uneasily, wondering if she should tell Xicro about her lack of magic skills. She could only heal- and even then not very well. Mostly what she had been able to do as far as spells go was to help those with headaches and make small illusions around objects. She hadn't been trained very well because any magic considered 'useless' was cast aside. If it couldn't be used in a war, what was the point of it? She didn't much like the mentality of most people now that she thought about it. When had humans become so obsessed with controlling everyone and fighting those who didn't agree with them?

Toran glanced over to her knowingly, and she could feel her cheeks darken with embarrassment. That's right, through their link he probably had seen what a failure she was with magic when she was younger...

Althea stayed silent for the rest of the day, walking endlessly forward until she felt like her feet were blistering in her shoes. She was walking at the back of the group by the time the sun started setting, her legs feeling sore and aching from the traveling. She hadn't known how much it would hurt to walk this much in a day. Now she wished she had taken more strolls along the country like her cousin.

"We'll stop here for the night." Toran said, motioning toward a clearing among a tree grove. "Tomorrow we'll travel deeper into the hostile territory, so make sure to get some rest."

Xicro sat on the ground with a groan, stretching the toes on his feet and rubbing the paws. Althea sat down beside him, taking off her shoes to do the same.

"At least I know I'm not the only one with aching feet." She sighed with relief as her feet finally got a break.

"My feet always hurt after these long walks." Xicro glanced over to her feet, staring for a moment. "I always wonder how humans can walk on such tiny feet, though."

Althea looked down at her feet before looking over to Xicro's paws to see the difference. Like a normal animal, his legs ended in paws but much larger than the average panther's. She wondered if they ever wore shoes, or if they just walked on their pads like normal animals.

"Well, if you don't have a blanket for tonight, you can borrow one of mine." Xicro rummaged through the pack he had brought with him, pulling out a blanket for himself and handing Althea the other.

"Thank you. I hadn't even thought to get one." Althea chuckled at her own unpreparedness. "I guess I still have to get used to traveling on my own."

Xicro smiled to her reasuringly. "Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it. Good night." He curled up in his own blanket, a few yards away from her. Althea looked down at the blanket in her hands, wrapping it around herself so that she was cocooned in the soft wool. It wasn't comfortable... but it would do. With how exhausted she was after today, it wouldn't take much to fall asleep.

Althea felt something jostle her, abruptly waking her up from her sleep. "Wake up, Althea."

She groaned and sat up, looking up to see a man beside her, his hard eyes judging as he watched her every move. She knew those eyes- she had fought against their piercing gaze since she had been a little girl.

"Raoul, what are you doing here?!" Althea whispered in shock.

"I'm here to take you from these beasts. I heard you were kidnapped, and the villagers said you had been there recently- so I figured you had to be nearby. Now come on, before they wake up." He held out a hand to help her up.

"They didn't kidnap me, I went with them." Althea hissed. It wasn't entirely the truth, but she _had_ volunteered to travel with them. "Now leave. I have no intention of deserting them. You have no idea what the animus have been through."

"Nothing that they haven't done in return!" Raoul growled. "You mean to tell me you're betraying your own kind? Have you no decency?"

"I have plenty of decency." Althea snapped back. "Leave- now!"

Raoul frowned, looking down at her with that judging look she hated so much. "You may be related to me by blood, cousin... but I will uphold my duty to my king if you are truly fighting with these beasts."

"If you're to fight someone, fight me." Toran walked up behind the man, sword drawn. "There is no honor in fighting an unarmed opponent in the night."

Raoul turned and shouted, drawing his own sword and meeting the tiger prince's with a metallic ring that woke Radica and Xicro from their sleep. Xicro immediately scrambled over to Althea, grabbing her by the shoulders and dragging her back away from the battle as swords clashed and swung.

"The tiger prince?" Raoul shouted in triumph. "I'll slay you and bring your hide back to the king!"

"Go ahead and try." Toran growled back, baring his fangs to the man menacingly.

"Stop!" Althea shouted, standing and trying to rush toward them, only to be stopped by Xicro's grip. "They're going to kill each other!"

"There's nothing you can do, Althea." Xicro said, looking toward the fight with wide fearful eyes. "We'd only get in the way and put them in danger if we distract them. Do you know this human?"

"He's my cousin. I'm not too fond of him, but... he's still family." The only family she had known for years. The oldest of the two cousins she had lived with, Raoul had trained to be a knight as was expected as the oldest son of a nobleman.

"I'm sorry Althea, but if you travel with us like this, this will happen more often than not. You have to come to the reality that other humans will hate you just for being associated with us. I'm sorry."

Althea gritted his teeth and cried out in alarm as Toran got a shallow slice to an arm, Raoul sporting the same across a leg. These two were going to slice each other to pieces! It was obvious they were an even match for each other, Raoul's slow powerful strokes smashing against Toran's more agile but weaker ones. What could she do?

Althea gasped as she realized there was something she could do to stop this- She raised her hands, the silvery mist of her magic glowing from her palms. Gathering the mist into a thick ball of swirling smoke, she shot it forward toward Raoul and Toran, the mist traveling toward their heads to surround them.

Both cried out in pain, dropping their swords as they grabbed their heads, Toran backing away quickly and the magic releasing him from his pain. Raoul on the other hand, stubbornly tried reaching for his sword to continue battling.

Xicro released Althea as she started moving forward, one hand still raised to control the magic as she stood in front of her cousin.

"This is my choice, Raoul." She said in a low tone. "I'm going to help the prince regain his kingdom, because what uncle did was wrong. It was terrible- so many people died for no reason." She shook her head at the memory that had been burned into her mind from those dreams. "I have to try and right this wrong. If that means betraying my family to do it, so be it. We shouldn't kill someone just because they're different from us."

Raoul gritted his teeth, glaring up at her through the pain as his head throbbed. "You idiot bitch." He hissed. "I always knew you were weak. You'll die like the rest of them, then!" He lunged for his sword, swinging wildly toward Althea, who gasped and darted back, increasing the pain coursing through him. She looked up to see Toran striding toward him, raising a leg to kick the man in the chest, sending him flying against a tree behind him.

"Consider yourself for a moment, fool." Toran growled. "She's letting you go with your pathetic life. If it were me, I wouldn't be so merciful." He leaned down to pick up his own sword, sheathing it again and turning away.

"Leave, Raoul." Althea said darkly, releasing him from the pain. "If you come back, I'll let Toran kill you."

Raoul glared at her with hatred, grabbing his sword and sheathing it as his headache disappeared. "Someday I'll kill you, Althea. Remember that when your animal friends are all dead around you. You have no family now."

The words hit their mark, Althea letting out a small breath of shock but rose her chin higher in defiance. She wouldn't let Raoul see how his words had effected her. She waited until he had completely left her sight before letting her shoulders sag. What had she just done?

She looked up as Xicro put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly before turning back toward the camp and sitting down on the ground with a loud sigh of relief.

"Althea." Toran stood in front of her, his face a stern mask of frustration. "Next time let me fight my own battles. Leave that damn magic out of it." He growled before walking away.

Althea watched him leave, her eyes wide with surprise before she turned away. She had only been trying to help... she hadn't wanted to make Toran angry.

Xicro glared at Toran as he wandered off to clean his sword, walking over to Althea. "Are you alright?"

"I don't know. I think I just need some time alone." Althea said softly, walking out of the camp and through the trees of the forest, away from the animus.

She had lost her family... Raoul had made that clear. She knew better than to think she could just go home after helping Toran and the others, but somehow it hadn't really sunk in as reality. She was homeless, without a kingdom to call her own. Her fate was now tied to that of Toran and the animus. She knew it had been the right thing to do, but the consequence had been terrible.

She had been walking for quite some time before she realized she had wandered too far from the camp. She looked around the trees and sighed with relief when she saw the path she had taken. At least she hadn't gotten lost.

"Why are you traveling with the tiger prince?" A male voice said from the trees.

Althea gasped and looked around, seeing a pair of golden eyes looking down at her from the trees, glowing with nocturnal light. "W-who are you?"

"Answer my question. Why are you traveling with the tiger prince?" The voice said again.

"I'm traveling with him to help him." Althea answered, looking at the eyes with trepidation. Whoever this was, they seemed to be sided with Toran...

The figure dropped from the tree with a sound of rustling feathers, wings tucking in behind its back. "If you are helping the animus, then you are an ally. My name is Soren." He came into view, a tall barn owl animus with wide wings. He stopped in front of her, looking down at her with a critical eye. "I will be honest, I have never met a human before."

Althea smiled sheepishly feeling a bit uneasy about being alone in the middle of the forest. "I've never met an avian animus before."

Soren nodded, a small smile coming over his face. "I need to talk to the tiger prince. I was sent here on a mission from Umou. It is of the utmost importance."

"Oh." Althea looked back in the direction of the camp. "He should be back there. I was heading back that way anyway." Althea said, motioning for the animus to follow her. Soren walked behind her, tucking his wings tightly against his back so his feathers didn't get caught on any branches.

It didn't take too long to get back, Xicro sighing with relief at the sight of her return. He stood up when he spotted Soren behind her, walking over to greet the avian.

"What can we do for you?" Xicro asked.

"I was sent to scout ahead and find you. We heard you were in this area, so we thought we might get your help in a mission we've heard rumors of. A small avian girl has gone missing and the family thinks she's been taken captive by humans. Since we are near a human settlement, we think that there might be a prison nearby keeping animus."

"That seems likely." Xicro nodded. "Do you have any idea of where it might be?"

"Another scout was sent to look for it- he should be back any time now." Soren glanced toward the tree tops. "I will wait in the canopy to signal to him that you're down here. Will you help us?"

"Of course." Xicro nodded. "I'm sure Toran would agree. Any animus in danger will get help. We'll set out tomorrow to find them."

Soren smiled with relief. "I'm glad to hear it. The girl was only 4 years old- not even able to fly yet. I would hate to see anything bad happen to her." He nodded toward Althea again before jumping up and flapping his wings, sending leaves scattering around as he flew into the tree canopy.

Xicro looked back to Althea, putting a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "You okay?"

Althea looked up at the canopy thoughtfully. "I may have lost my family... but I know I'm doing the right thing." She clenched her teeth as she felt tears burn her eyes, but managed to fight them back. "I guess you guys are my family now." She looked back at him, her voice cracking with emotion.

Xicro let out a small hiss of pity and walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her in a hug. "We'll be here for you, Althea. You've given up so much to help us. Thank you." He held her for a moment, rubbing her back as she couldn't help but cry softly. "This has been a rough night for all of us. We'll have something to work toward tomorrow to distract us. Who knows, maybe we'll save that little girl and give her a happy ending. That would be nice, wouldn't it?" He moved back to look down at her.

"Yeah." Althea nodded, quickly wiping tears from her face. She looked up and saw Toran staring at her from behind Xicro, his expression that of concern. She turned around so he wouldn't see her crying, wiping her cheeks to get the tears off her face, taking deep breaths to calm down.

Xicro looked over his shoulder at Toran, frowning with disappointment at the tiger from his earlier reaction to Althea. He had made a bad situation even worse. He may be grown up, but having grown in solitude he still had a long way to go in learning how to deal with people. He turned back to Althea, rubbing a hand along her back to reassure her. "Try to get some sleep. We'll be walking a lot again tomorrow, so you'll need to get rested."

Althea nodded, walking back over to her blanket silently, and laying down. She wrapped the woolen cloth around her again, hearing Toran and Xicro whispering fiercely at each other, but not able to make out what they were saying. She just needed to focus on sleep... there was a little girl to rescue, after all. She hugged the blanket to her body, slowly drifting off into slumber as she dreamed of playing with her father as a child.


	3. Chapter 3

Althea woke the next morning from a loud hawk call overhead, making her startle awake in alarm. She sat up and looked around, seeing Xicro cooking meat nearby, the remains of a rabbit on the forest floor not too far away.

"Don't worry, it's just Soren's fellow scout avian." He smiled, patting the ground next to him in invitation. Althea sat up and walked over to sit beside him, staring into the fire with sleepy eyes. She jumped when Soren fell down from the trees above, closely followed by another avian- this one was dark brown with white wings lined with brown bands. It looked like he was a peregrine falcon or something similar. That would explain the hawk cry.

"This is Tobias- he is the scout who was sent to find the prison." Soren introduced the other avian.

"The prison is guarded by some humans, but it's not too far away." The falcon said in a gruff voice. "It shouldn't take more than an hour or two to walk there. I counted four guards from the outside, but it's likely there's more inside."

"Shouldn't be too hard for us to handle with all the animus here, then." Soren nodded. "Especially with a magic user here, too."

Althea chewed a piece of rabbit uneasily. "I'm actually not that good at combat magic." She said quietly.

Tobias looked over to her in confusion, a dark frown coming over his face. "A human? Why is she here?"

"She's helping us. Treat her with respect." Xicro looked over to the falcon, his yellow eyes giving him a warning. "She is one of us."

Althea couldn't help but blush with embarrassment at Xicro's defense, but looked up when she heard a squawk from Tobias. Soren had elbowed him in the cut, making the other avian bend over in pain, his wings twitching behind him from the impact.

"Don't be an idiot, Tobias!" Soren snapped. "Do you seriously think he would be so relaxed if she wasn't an ally? Think before you talk next time."

"Sorry." Tobias wheezed, glancing over to Althea. "I didn't know." He looked back to Soren with a frown. "You didn't need to hit that hard."

Soren rolled his eyes, crossing his arms in front of his chest in frustration. Althea chuckled at the close relationship between the avians, looking up as Toran walked back into the camp from the forest. He looked down at her as if he wanted to say something, but she quickly looked away. She didn't really want to talk to him- his harsh words had made last night hurt even more.

Toran let out a low growl before looking over to the avians. "Are you ready to go?"

"You're not leaving without us, are you?" Xicro stood up angrily. "At least eat something before you leave." He offered the largest piece of the mostly eaten rabbit.

Toran glanced down at Althea with trepidation before letting out a grumble and taking the rabbit. "Fine. We'll eat and then go." He gruffed.

Xicro let out a groan of frustration, waving a hand dismissively at Toran as the tiger walked off with his food. "Sometimes I think he turned into a hermit. He just doesn't talk when he doesn't know how to deal with something." The panther sat back down beside Althea.

"He does seem rather grumpy." Tobias said, taking a piece of the rabbit as well, handing another to Soren as the owl sat beside him.

"He isn't used to dealing with people. He means well." Xicro shrugged. "He'll be fine after a while."

They finished eating in silence, putting out the fire and gathering supplies to walk to the prison. Althea was a bit nervous to be walking toward a prison that may hold some hostile animus, but it was for the sake of saving that girl- so she would risk it.

Tobias had been right- the prison hadn't been too far to the north, the group arriving there after a little under an hour. There were three guards in front of an entrance to an underground building, chatting with each other and laughing in relaxation. The animus were hiding behind the trees of the forest, watching them warily.

"We'll have to do this fast so they can't use magic." Toran whispered. "If they can't talk, they can't fight."

"Why not have Althea use her freezing magic like earlier? We wouldn't have to worry about it, then." Xicro offered.

"No." Toran said fiercely. "She's not to get involved any more than necessary."

Althea glared at him angrily. "How am I supposed to help you if I can't do anything? I can at least do this!" She hissed.

"Fine." Toran growled back. "But don't you dare come any closer than here. Use your magic from behind this tree. I don't want you to get near them until we clear them away and get inside."

Althea nodded, raising a hand and letting the white mist flow from her palm, the magic seeping around the guard's heads and causing the headaches that incapacitated them, making them clutch at their temples and groan in pain. The birds flew above them, landing onto the ground behind the guards and twisting their necks quickly, the crunching sound of their necks breaking silencing the groans. Althea gasped, closing her hands at the sight of such easy and quick deaths that she had helped make happen.

Xicro put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly as he crept forward with Toran, the birds flying into the roof of the building and motioned toward the other wall on the opposite side. Toran unsheathed his sword quietly, dispatching of the two remaining guards quickly. Walking back around, they motioned for Althea and Radica to come over, the birds landing back on the ground as they opened the door to go inside.

The inside of the prison was dark, the only light coming from torches that lined long halls that led in either direction. A guard shouted when he saw them, running toward them with a hand outstretched with red magic flowing from his palm. Althea made a squeak of alarm, her own magic coming to her defense, the man halting in place to lean against the wall before Toran ran his sword through him to kill him.

"This is so much easier with her." Soren chuckled in amusement as they took care of the last guard, able to finally get a good look around.

"Oh Gods what's that smell?" Althea covered her nose at the putrid smell she had never experienced, but somehow seemed familiar. It was acrid, almost sweet and acidic.

"Death." Toran growled, looking into a cell in front of him. Through the iron bars on the door was a dead animus, his body leaning against the stone wall behind him. "I don't know how many prisoners we'll find alive here."

"We have to look." Xicro said, looking in another cell to find another body. He hissed with anger before starting to move down the hallway, Toran trying them on the other side. Althea looked down the hallway that ran in the other direction, starting at the row and looking through the window, gasping when she saw a corpse inside. Bile rose into her mouth at the sight, but she forced it back down to keep looking.

It only took a few more tries before she found another door with someone inside, the small huddled mass in the far corner rising up and down with breathing. She tried opening the door, only to find it locked. She put her hand to the lock, shoving as much magic as possible into the metal until it clicked open. She smiled at the trick her cousin had taught her, glad it was finally coming of use. Opening the wooden door, the slow creaking seemed to fill the room as the small animus scrambled further against the wall in fear.

"I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here to rescue you." She said reassuringly, looking down at the little girl, bit wide eyes looking back up at her. She kneeled down, seeing a long scrape along the little girl's arm, which she clutched to her chest. Althea gently took the arm, putting her other hand over the scrape and let her magic heal so that it closed, leaving the arm healed. She smiled down to the little girl, who gasped at the sight, examining where the scrape had been in wonder.

"You're a good human?" She looked back up to Althea, still wary.

"I'm a good human." Althea smiled, holding out her arms welcomingly.

The little girl let out a small sob of relief as she jumped into Althea's arms, Althea standing up while she supported the girl on her hip. She was an adorable little animus, with tiny wings that hadn't grown into their full size yet. She looked to be a raven from the black feathers that covered her body. She clutched at Althea's dress as Althea brought her back out into the hallway, back toward the others.

"You found her!" Tobias smiled with relief. He ran over and ruffled the long feather-hair on the little girl's head, before turning back to look for more prisoners.

"You'll be okay, we won't let anyone hurt you again." Althea whispered to her, rubbing her back comfortingly. "What's your name?"

"P-Peperinsa." She stammered through her tears. "But momma called me Peeps."

"Well Peeps, we'll bring you to somewhere it's safe, okay? I promise." She wiped a tear from the little girl's cheek, her heart breaking that someone so young had to go through something so terrible.

"Okay, thanks nice lady." She hiccuped, looking back at the line of prison doors and clutching at Althea again. "Make sure Nawu is safe too."

"Nawu?" Althea looked down at the girl in confusion. "Who's Nawu?"

"He's pretty." The girl smiled wistfully. "He helped me a lot. Made sure I didn't get too hurt- but I haven't seen him for a while, I think he's sick."

Althea let out a small noise of concern before walking back over to Soren. "She says there's another avian animus here. Someone named Nawu." She said, hoping it might help them.

"Nawu, huh?" Soren looked at the line of doors. "It might take a while to find him, but we'll keep looking."

"He's in a special room. He was bad." Peeps said quietly. "They made him yell a lot."

Soren and Tobias looked at each other uneasily and nodded. "We'll try and find him. You just keep Althea company, okay?" Soren said softly to the little animus.

Peeps nodded, burying her face in Althea's shoulder. "I miss momma."

"I know, sweetie." Althea patted the girl's head. "Just wait a little bit until we find anyone else that might be here and we'll leave, okay?"

"Okay." Peeps whispered.

Althea carried Peeps as they continued checking doors, staying near the others as the other animus seemed to comfort the girl more. Finally they came to the last few rooms at the end of the hall, one of the rooms covered with more locks than usual.

"I don't think I can get these off with just my sword." Toran growled.

"Here- hold her for a minute, Xicro." She handed Peeps to Xicro, the girl latching onto the panther just as she did to Althea. She walked over to the door, using her magic to unlock each lock, the process long and and tiring. By the time she had finished, her brow was sweating from using so much magic in one day. She wiped the sweat away as Toran opened the door, looking into the room. A large green feather blew out of the room with the motion, more feathers littering the ground.

"No, no, not again." A male voice groaned from inside. A figure was huddled against the wall, shaking with pain.

"Hey- whoever you are, we're here to help." Toran walked forward, Althea entering the room behind him.

"Help?" The voice said sarcastically. "Yeah right. Stay back, or... or else." He held up a hand, Althea pausing with surprise when the blue hand was raised as if he was going to cast magic. Except... animus didn't have magic, right?

Toran obviously didn't notice, as he kept walking forward. "I'm serious. Here." He walked into the small beam of light that shone through a small window in the top of the wall- far too small for even a child to climb through.

A gasp of shock came from the animus against the wall, the figure sitting up and coming into view. "Y-you're really here? I'm not dreaming after all this time?" He asked, his voice shaking.

"How long have you been in here?" Toran asked uneasily, offering a hand to help the animus off the ground. It was still so dark it was hard to see who or what he was.

"I'm honestly not sure." The animus grunted as he tried to stand, taking a few attempts to get to his feet before standing in the dark for a moment. "I lost track of time after a while in here."

Althea could understand how easy it would be in such a dark solitary room. She looked down on the ground where he had been sitting, seeing a pool of blood beneath him. "Are you wounded? I can heal you." She offered.

The animus looked up at her and backed up against the wall in fear. "N-no, don't touch me." He stammered.

"Okay." Althea said softly, backing up a bit so she didn't scare him further. He was so frightened... she wondered what he had been through to get him to be this way.

"Come on. Let's get out of here." Toran said, offering a hand to help the animus out of the room. The blue hand grabbed his, shaking with weakness. Toran brought the animus into the light and nearly dropped the hand with shock at the sight.

The animus was a bright blue avian, a long peacock tail lying on the dirt ground behind him, scraggly from misuse. The peacock animus looked up at him uneasily, his green eyes glassy with sickness.

"Gods." Toran whispered in shock. "You're a peacock."

The peacock let out a small laugh. "Well, half of one, anyway." He stepped further into the light, and it was then that Althea realized he had no wings. The large wings that Soren and Tobias sported were absent on this animus. It was a striking difference between them.

"What happened?" Toran hissed in pity.

"They took my wings." The animus said, his voice cracking with emotions. "It hurts so much. I suppose it was my fault for trying to get out again."

"No, it's never your fault." Althea said quickly. "Gods, how could they do such a thing?"

The peacock looked over to her in surprise, staring at her for a long moment before lurching forward, his bird legs catching on the stone as they shuffled forward in exhaustion. "I want to leave. Please."

"Of course." Toran moved forward and put one of the avian's arms around his shoulders for support, letting him lean against him. "What's your name?"

"Naru." He looked up at him, glancing to Althea as they walked past her, as if waiting for her to do something.

Toran brought her out into the hall where the others were waiting, all of them pausing and staring at Naru as he came out of the room. Soren and Tobias stared with wide eyes as he went past them, Toran nearly half dragging the animus out of the prison. Soren moved forward quickly, taking the other arm of Naru, helping Toran move him up the stairs to the light that shone above.

Naru blinked in pain for a moment, putting a hand over his eyes as he groaned in pain from how bright it was. His eyes finally adjusted, the sight of the grass and trees filling his vision. He stared at the view for a long moment, looking up and seeing the cloud filled sky. "I'm really free." He whispered, his voice wavering with emotion. He pushed away from Toran and Soren, moving forward with staggering steps on the grass, falling to his knees and digging great hand fulls of the plants, letting the dirt fill his palms. He looked up to see Peeps standing in front of him, a bright smile on her face.

"See Nawu, I told you it was pretty. You just had to be patient. Momma told me patience is a virtue." The little girl grinned.

Naru let out a small laugh and took the small girl into his arms, hugging her tightly. "Yeah." He said, his voice cracking as tears flowed from his eyes. He held the girl for a long time, simply crying against her as he sat on the ground, the small girl patting him on the shoulder to comfort him.

"Um..." Soren started uneasily behind him. "Sire, you... um..."

Naru looked over his shoulder at the owl animus, a frown on his face. "There's no need to call me sire."

"Right." Soren looked at the ground as if trying to think of what to say next. "If I may be so bold, you really should let someone look at your back."

Naru sighed, nodding. "It still hurts. It should be healed by now, but it hasn't." He strained himself to look at the mess the prison guards had left of his wings, but couldn't turn that far without crying out in pain and turning back forward.

"It's pretty bad." Xicro moved forward to examine it. The skin around the bone stumps were swollen and red, blood seeping from some areas. "We could have Althea heal it."

"Okay." Naru said nervously, letting Peeps out of his arms. He jumped with shock as Althea started walking toward him, scooting backwards across the grass. "No- not her."

"I'm not going to hurt you- I just want to heal you so you don't hurt anymore." She said softly, stopping where she was a few feet away from him. "I promise you, I won't hurt you at all."

"Yeah, she healed me, Nawu!" Peeps held up her healed arm to show him. "She's a good human."

Naru looked at Peeps arm, looking back at Althea warily. "Alright." He said, sounding strained.

"I'll be as quick as possible." Althea said, kneeling behind him, biting her lip at the intensely infected areas. "This might take a few days to heal, actually."

"That bad, huh?" Naru shook his head. "I didn't have anything to clean it with."

"Well, I'll do my best." Althea put her hands against the skin gently, the downy feathers that covered his body felt strange beneath her palms. She let her magic flow into the area, closing her eyes as she concentrated. She was already depleted from earlier, but she wanted to prove herself to this injured animus.

Naru let out a deep sigh of relief at the warmth that flowed through him from the healing magic, the pain fading some as she worked. He glanced back over his shoulder to see her eyes closed with concentration, her brow sweating with effort. "Hey- stop. Stop. You don't have to do that much." He said, concern in his voice. "If you use up all your magic you'll get sick."

Althea stopped, her head spinning a bit. "I know." She said softly. "I want to prove to you I want to help."

Naru watched her for a moment before nodding. "I believe you." He said, blinking a few times in surprise. "What did you say your name was again?"

"Althea." She smiled down to him. "That should stop the bleeding, at least. I'll heal you more tomorrow and wash out the wound." She patted his shoulder, making him jump involuntarily from the touch. "Sorry." She whispered.

"You're fine." Naru said, standing with a long groan and stretching his back, his tail unfurling from behind him to stand nearly a foot taller than him. He shook the feathers, the tail making a rustling sound.

"Wow." Althea looked up at the tail with wide eyes. "That's rather impressive."

Naru couldn't help but smile at the compliment. "Thank you." He looked back toward the other animus. "I have... a lot of questions. I don't know how long I was in there. When did the Kisa kingdom fall?"

"Nearly 6 years ago." Toran said gently.

Naru let out a long breath of shock. "6 years." He stared at the ground for a moment. "That means I'm..." He thought for a moment. "22."

Althea shook her head in disbelief. To be captured at 16 and held captive for all that time... it was terrible. She couldn't even imagine what he had seen.

"Well let's find a river so we can wash that wound out." Toran motioned them to continue forward.

"Oh- wait a second." Althea leaned down and dug through her bag she had gotten from the market, grabbing a large fruit. "Here." She handed it to Naru with a smile. "I assume you don't eat meat?"

"Can't." Naru nodded and took the fruit, peeling it eagerly before taking a bite and groaning with glee at the taste. "Thank you." He said gratefully, before taking another bite. He tore off a smaller piece and handed it to Peeps, who ate it just as eagerly.

"No problem. I can go into another village and get more." She smiled, walking after Toran as they waited for Naru to catch up. He couldn't walk quickly with his tail dragging behind him, and he seemed rather protective of it because when they came across any mud, he lifted it carefully off the ground. Althea was glad that the peacock had a bit of pride left in his appearance, though it was rather amusing how obsessive he was with the giant feathers.

"I'm going to be preening for months." She heard Naru grumble as he looked at the ragged feathers behind him and sighed deeply.


	4. Chapter 4

"Found a river!" Tobias yelled from above, circling above them as he pointed toward the east. "It's about half a day's walk or so. I didn't see any humans around, either." He landed back onto the ground with the rest of the group, glancing over to Naru uneasily as the peacock panted with effort from walking. He was starting to fall behind the others, Althea subtly staying near him so he didn't feel alone at the back of the group.

"I need to take a break." Naru gasped before falling to his knees, trying to catch his breath. "I haven't walked so much since I was captured."

"It's alright." Althea said, signaling to the others to stop as well. Toran walked over, looking down at Naru with a mixture of sympathy and frustration.

"We're almost there. Do you need help getting there? We can rest for a few days once we're there." The tiger winced as he noticed the back wound had opened again, blood running down the peacock's back in a slick mess.

"No, I don't need help." Naru snapped. "I don't want people carrying me. I can walk, I just need a break." He sat on the ground for a moment, his tail splaying out behind him.

"Go easy on him, Toran. He's not used to this- I'm not either. My feet are killing me." Althea glared at Toran, who nodded and turned away without another word. She sighed and rolled her eyes in dismay at him, then turned back to Naru. "The others told me you can use magic. Is that true?" She asked, trying to distract Naru from his pain and exhaustion.

"Yeah." Naru nodded. "I was supposed to be trained in it when I was older- but that didn't happen. I'm not very experienced with it. I pretty much can only do blasts and growing plants." He looked down in embarrassment.

"That's still something." Althea smiled. She handed him her water skin, letting him drink his fill. "I can't grow plants like that, so you know more than I do." She waited a few more minutes before offering a hand to help him stand back up. "Are you okay now?"

"Yeah, I should be good." Naru said, handing the water back to her and nodding gratefully. He took her hand and hoisted himself back up off the ground to continue. "Your friend over there isn't very patient, is he?"

"Toran?" Althea glanced over to the tiger. "No, he's not." She sighed. "But you get used to it."

Naru made a small sound of disbelief at that, but nodded. "Alright, let's keep going." He stretched his talons, flexing them before starting to walk again.

Naru let out a yell of excitement when the river came into view, rushing forward ahead of everyone to wade into the water, dirt and grime floating into the water around him as he walked in up to his waist. He dunked under the water, letting out a laugh of excitement once he was soaked, looking around at the dirty water with a look of disgust.

"Bath time!" Peeps yelled and jumped in as well, the splash making Naru laugh again and splash the little girl back.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Toran looked toward Althea uneasily.

Althea looked back up at him in surprise and nodded, walking away from the others with him. "Sure." She muttered, wondering what he wanted to talk about.

He led her out deeper into the forest that bordered the rivers so that the others were far out of sight, and in no way could hear them.

He turned away from her, running a hand through his brown hair uneasily, his stance tense. "I-I'm not very good at this kind of thing." Toran said, glancing at her over his shoulder. "But I wanted to say I'm sorry. For last night."

"Oh." Althea said in surprise. "Thank you. I understand why you were upset, though. If you don't want me to help you with fights, I won't."

"No, it's not that. I just... you can't really defend yourself, and you're..." He let out a small sound of frustration and watched the ground as he spoke. "You're too nice to get hurt in battle, Althea. You honestly want to help us, because it's right. Even if it means you can't see your family ever again."

Althea nodded, but his words seemed to ring through her mind, the realization hitting her again that she couldn't ever go home. "It's... you guys need help." She said, her voice cracking. "I know you do, I've seen it- and..." She winced with embarrassment as a small sob came out of her, turning away so he couldn't see her tears.

"Ah, I didn't mean to make you cry-" Toran held out a hand to her, but dropped it with a deep sigh. "I'm terrible at dealing with people. I'm sorry. You've sacrificed so much for us, and I've just been giving you a hard time."

Althea didn't say anything, just continued to fight back the tears that stung her eyes, hating that she had been crying so much today. It's not like she even knew her family well- why should she be so upset to lose them? Why was she so upset that other humans saw her as a traitor, and she couldn't be seen with the animus?

She tense as warm arms surrounded her, Toran giving her a tentative hug to comfort her. "Thank you for doing all this, Althea. You could have walked away from us- you could have decided to live a normal life as a human. Get married, have kids... instead you chose to help us. Thank you." He said seriously, hugging her tighter for a minute before letting go of her. "I know you're the niece of the king- that makes you royal. I know how much you gave up to be here, sleeping on the cold ground with just a blanket and no bed."

Althea couldn't help but let out a chuckle. "It's not that bad, really."

"It is, you're just being modest." Toran shook his head. "Modesty is a good trait, but there is a limit to how far it should go, Althea. Think of yourself sometimes and not everyone else around you. I don't want you to get too close to a battle because you can get hurt, or killed. You don't have teeth or claws like I do if you lose your weapon. You only have magic, and not even that much. You said it yourself."

Althea let out a small sigh. "I know... I just don't know how else I can help you. What am I supposed to do?"

"Just be there." Toran smiled. "It's enough right now that you're here supporting us. Jumping into a fight without a plan will just get people hurt when they try to protect you. I should have said that last night instead of just being so cruel. I just hadn't expected someone to find us so quickly so I was worried we were being followed."

"Followed? Were we?" Althea squeaked in alarm. "Do you think they still are?"

"Not that I've seen or heard, but you never know. There are ways to make people invisible or silent with magic. I've seen it before." Toran shook his head. "For now, we just keep alert and be prepared if something happens." He flinched when a raindrop hit his nose, looking up to see rain starting to fall from the sky. "Damnit, I thought it might look like a storm was coming." He looked back toward the river, where everyone was running for the tree line as a steady stream of rain started heading their way. "Come on, follow me." He said, grabbing her wrist and guiding her into thicker trees. The rain soaked them quickly, making Althea shiver in the cold as she was drenched.

"There's a house up ahead." She pointed toward the structure, a small simplistic cabin nestled in a grove of trees.

"I'll ask if we can go inside. If it's humans, then we'll just have to find something else." Toran nodded, running up to the door and knocking his fist against the wood. "Can we seek shelter inside?" He shouted into the door. "Please!"

The door opened a crack and a woman peeked through the door, her eyes wide at the sight of Toran and Althea shivering in the rain. She opened it further, revealing a small cabin with one bedroom. "Please, come in. I have a fire going." She motioned them to come inside, Toran putting an arm around Althea's shoulders to try and keep her a bit warmer as he guided her through the door. He led her to a fire, sitting her down in front of it. She was still shivering, but she seemed to be getting warmer with the flames heating her.

"Thank you." Toran said, looking to the woman in surprise. She was a human... and to the best of his knowledge, no human but Althea had allied themselves with the animus.

"Of course." She nodded her head. "It's the least I can do for the prince of the Taria kingdom. My husband will be honored to see you here."

Toran blinked in shock at that statement, Althea turning her head to look at the woman as well. "W-who is your husband?" Toran couldn't help but ask.

"He should be out any moment. He was resting after hunting most of the day." She walked over to the door leading to the bedroom, knocking on the door gently. "Dear, we have visitors. Can you and Vita come out to see them, please?"

"Of course." The male voice from inside the bedroom called back.

The woman waited patiently as her husband came out, the door opening to reveal a cheetah animus walking out, stopping in his tracks when he saw Toran.

"Majesty!" He bowed his head quickly. "It's an honor to have you in my home."

Toran nodded back in thanks, looking from the woman to the animus. "You two are married then? I have not heard of a human and animus mating."

"I have only met one other couple." The woman blushed shyly. "It is rare, but we exist. Dear, where is Vita?"

"Vita!" The cheetah called back with a smile. "Come meet the tiger prince."

"Prince?!" A child's voice sounded from the bedroom and a small boy ran out, looking up at Toran with wide eyes. "You're the prince!" He grinned.

Toran couldn't help but stare in shock at the boy, who looked human except for the cheetah ears on his head, and a long feline tail and swished behind him happily. Never in his life had Toran seen a hybrid between a human and animus- hadn't even known they could exist. He looked up as the woman chuckled in amusement at his shock.

"Imagine my surprise when I found myself pregnant." She smiled. "I hadn't thought it possible, either- yet here he is." She kneeled down and the boy ran into her arms for a hug. She lifted him into her arms, settling him against a hip. "I didn't know the prince was traveling with a human." She looked down to Althea. "A noble, at that! If you want to be more discreet you'll have to change clothes dear, those are much too rich to blend into a crowd."

Althea looked down at her dress thoughtfully, but realized she was right. She stuck out like a sore thumb in her blue and silver gown rather than the normal peasant attire. "I have an idea if you'd be willing to help." Althea looked up at the woman. "How about I trade you this gown for one of yours? I'm sure it's worth quite a bit of money at a village."

The woman smiled happily. "I'd be happy to! I think I have some in your size from before I had Vita." She set the child down, who was still staring at Toran with eyes full of awe. She strode over to the bedroom, coming back with a simple blue skirt and white tunic. "This should do nicely- and good for traveling." She handed her the clothes and motioned toward the bedroom. "Feel free to change in there. Let me know if you need help with lacings."

Althea smiled gratefully to her and went into the bedroom to change, leaving Toran alone with the couple. He looked down at the child again, still shocked at the sight. "I-is he healthy?" He asked.

"Oh yes, very healthy." The woman chuckled. "Gets into all kinds of trouble, just like any child."

"We haven't brought him out much without wearing a hat and keeping his tail in his pants... for obvious reasons." The cheetah said. "He would attract unwanted attention without the proper precautions."

"I bet." Toran nodded. "He'd be a shock to most people. Humans don't think it's possible for animus and humans to produce children, and I'll be honest and say I've never heard of such a thing happening before today."

Althea came back out of the bedroom, dressed in the much more simple clothes of a peasant. She looked far more comfortable as well, the dress flowing freely around her so she wasn't confined into a corset and bustle like her noblewoman's dress. "That is so much better, thank you." She sighed, breathing deeply as if it was a novelty.

"Not a problem, dear." The woman chuckled. She looked out the window of the cabin as the rain started to die down, finally ending in a light sprinkling. "It looks like the rain has stopped. You're welcome to stay, but if you need to go now would probably be the best time."

"No, we should get going." Toran nodded. "Thank you for your hospitality. It will be remembered." He nodded in thanks to the cheetah and his human mate. He gave one last long look at the small boy before smiling and walking out of the cabin, Althea saying her goodbyes before following close behind.

"I've never seen a human-animus child before." She said in shock. "He... was rather adorable." She chuckled.

Toran glanced over to her in surprise but grinned. "He was rather cute. Let's find the others and make sure Naru gets his healing. I'm sure he's not too happy at being caught in the rain like that."

Althea nodded, looking over to Toran to see him still drenched and couldn't help but laugh. His fur was plastered against his skin and shining with the wetness, drops falling from his tail and ears. "You don't look very happy yourself."

"I don't have to preen my feathers if they get wet like he does." Toran reminded her and caught sight of Naru, who was muttering angrily and smoothing out his tail feathers in the distance. "See?"

"Where have you two been?" Xicro asked, looking at Althea's new dress. "Where did you get that?"

"We saw a cabin in the woods and sought shelter there. There was a couple inside." Toran grinned at Xicro's surprised expression. "A human- animus couple."

Xicro put a finger up to his chin thoughtfully. "Interesting. I didn't think there would be many human and animus couples considering the stigma between the races right now."

"Not only that, but they had a child." Toran said, everyone around him looking at him in surprise. "I know, that was my reaction too. He looked human, but had ears and a tail. Perfectly healthy."

"Well." Xicro let out a shocked breath. "That will certainly change things. If humans and animus can have children..."

"Then we're really not all that different after all." Naru said softly, his eyes wide as he stared at the ground.

"Right." Toran nodded in agreement.

"I could have told you that." Althea rolled her eyes. "All you guys are just humans with some fur and a tail. Okay you have strange legs too, but otherwise you're just the same. Same problems, same drama." She shrugged. "It makes sense."

Xicro grinned and rubbed Althea's head teasingly, messing up her hair. "You're a good kid, Althea. Now let's take care of Naru so we can get going. I don't want to get caught in another storm."

Althea smoothed her hair back down as best she could and walked over to Naru, who was still sitting on the ground trying to smooth his tail feathers out. "You ready for me to wash your back and heal you some more?"

"You've already used a lot of magic today." Naru looked at her skeptically. "Shouldn't you take a rest first? We can heal my back tomorrow. Just wash it for now."

Althea shook her head. "I'll only heal it a little more, I promise. It should have a bit more healing, because it opened back up when we were walking for so long."

"Fine." Naru sighed, walking over to the river and wading back into the water.

Althea hiked her skirt up around her knees, wading in after him, and sighing when the bottom of the skirt got we anyway. Oh well. "Now hold still, this might sting a bit." She brought some water and cupped it in her hands before letting it run down over the jagged flesh of his back, the rivers running red with blood as they ran through the wounds. Naru arched his back with a hiss of pain, but otherwise held still. "Sorry." Althea said, tentatively taking her hand away in hesitation before continuing.

"It's okay." Naru gritted through his teeth. "As long as it gets healed, that's what matters."

Althea nodded and tried to finish as quickly as possible, washing and closing the wounds again so that they at least stopped bleeding. When she was finished the flesh was still an angry red, but much less festered. "That looks much better." She said, patting his shoulder to signal to him that she was done.

He looked over his shoulder at her and smiled gratefully. "Thanks- it feels better, too." He tried to look at it, but didn't dare twist any further for fear of it opening again. He sat in the water, closing his eyes and enjoying the feeling of the water running past him. When he opened his eyes again, he saw Althea sitting on the shore of the river, her bare feet dangling in the water after she took off her shoes. He looked down at her feet in interest, glancing at his own talons to compare just how very different they were.

"Um..." He looked over to her sheepishly. "Can I ask a strange question?"

"I can give a strange answer." Althea joked back with a grin.

Naru chuckled and continued. "I was wondering about something the humans had talked about in the prison. I never knew whether they were just joking or being serious." He fidgeted with a tail feather nervously. "Do the mystics really exist?" He sighed with relief that his question was finally out in the open.

"The mystics?" Althea looked to him in confusion. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. Maybe I haven't heard of them."

"Well, the story goes that after the humans made my kind- the peacocks- they wanted more of a challenge. They gathered three of the most rare and magical creatures of the world and made animus." He explained. "Do you think that's possible? Do you think they exist?"

Althea shrugged. "I've never heard of them, and my family was pretty close to people who knew some very powerful sorcerers. I suppose if someone did make something like that, they would either keep it a closely guarded secret, or brag about it to whoever would listen depending on who they were."

"Hmm." Naru tapped his chin in thought. "I'm surprised something like that wouldn't be known more widely. It sounded pretty interesting."

"It may just be a myth." Althea suggested. "Something to show how strong the magic the sorcerers used to create the animus was. To change something that's already magic is very difficult."

"I didn't know that." Naru raised an eyebrow. "I didn't learn much magic before I was captured. Only basic things my father taught me- like growing things and illusions."

"You can make illusions?" Althea sat forward in excitement. "I've never been able to do that! Can you show me?"

Naru flushed happily at her excitement and nodded, raising his hands and letting his golden magic fill the air around him. His appearance slowly changed from his peacock form to that of a normal human with brown hair and green eyes. "I practiced this a lot when I was in the prison- and used it to try and escape the first time. It didn't work very well because it's just an illusion so if anyone touches me they'll still feel feathers."

"That's very impressive, though!" She smiled, looking him over with wide eyes. "It's so realistic- I would never think you're an animus unless I knew you beforehand." She gasped with a realization, splashing the water with her feet. "Maybe you can come into the village with me, that way I can have someone to watch my back in case something happens."

Naru let out a small squeaking noise in fear at the idea of being around so many humans. "I-I'm not sure I'm ready for that." He stammered, the illusion falling when he lost his concentration.

"Oh- right." Althea said softly. "Sorry, I forgot." How could she forget he had been tortured by humans for the last 6 years? Of course he was afraid of them. She was rather shocked he was so at ease around her.

"I'm a human, why aren't you scared of me?" She asked, admittedly curious to why he would suddenly not be afraid of her after he had shied away from her in the prison cell like he had.

Naru blinked in surprise and thought for a moment. "I suppose it's because you seem very genuine. You don't hide your emotions like some other humans, and you try to help others when you can. I'll admit sometimes I get nervous when you get near me, still." He shook his head. "But that's just a reflex at this point."

"I understand. Don't worry about it." Althea stood, shaking the excess water off of the hem of her skirt. "We should get back to the others. I don't know how long they're willing to wait before we keep walking again."

"Right." Naru hoisted himself out of the water, dragging his heavy tail with some effort before he got into the bank. He fanned out the wet feathers behind him and shook them violently, water flying in all directions from the feathers. Althea squealed and laughed as water splashed onto her, her arms going up to guard her face from the spray.

"Sorry." Naru snickered, not sounding very sorry at all. He walked past her, a smile on his face as he went over to the other animus, feeling much more like himself. He may have had a bad past... but perhaps it was time to move on. He would help Toran regain his kingdom, and then...

Well, he'd think about what to do after that when the time came.


End file.
